Heart to Heart
by Zonza
Summary: [One-Shot]Kagome's in her time, Kaede's tending to the ill and Miroku and Sango are exterminating youkai in another village... so who does that leave to comfort a sad Shippo?


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Disclaimer: Don't own 'em! Nuf said!

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Inuyasha

One shot: Heart to Heart

**_T_**he Goshinbouku stood taller then any other tree, it's leaves swaying in the light blowing wind while its sturdy branches held fast against the slight movement of the air. This great tree that was once a resting place to a magnificent creature that was to rest upon it's trunk throughout eternity now uses the alpine tree as a safe-haven from those he wishes not too see him. Yet somehow he is always found, if not through scent by the youkai of his group then by the knowledge the humans of his group seemed to have for him.

It frightened him somewhat that he had let his guard down often enough to know him so well that they were able to guess his place of hiding. What frightened him more than anything in the world would be how much Kagome seemed to know him, how she could interpret every scowl, every angry word that fell from his lips, and the meaning of every 'feh' and 'keh' uttered from his mouth. It would appear that she knew more of himself then any he has had the privilege of knowing, even more then his own mind knew what it wanted; what it meant.

To tell the truth he didn't even know why he hid in the tallest branches of the Goshinbouku, of his tree, the place that was to be his eternal resting place until she freed him from it.

Kagome was not angry with him, was not going to sit him on sight. She was in her stupid future world the made sense to no one but herself, taking tests that were next to useless in his eyes. All they served to do was keep her from her task and take from the feudal world and her friends there. Miroku and Sango had left to a near by village to exterminate some rat youkai and thus he did not have to worry about them nagging him of when he was to get Kagome, or the if he treated her better then she wouldn't leave so often.

If he fallowed their advice and treated her better, then when it was time for her to leave his world forever and seal the well it would hurt far more then if he had continued keep her at arms length. They didn't understand and so it was easy for them to make such foolish remarks. When everything was said and done with Naraku and none of them were killed during the fight then Sango would still have Miroku and Miroku would still have Sango. For him it would be a loose, loose situation. For no matter the outcome he would always loose her in the end. If she died in the battle with Naraku, if and when she survives then she would return to her side of the well forever, if there was no need for her to return he still had his promise to fulfill to Kikyou and thus they would still be separated. Either way he could not afford to find himself any more attached to her then he already was. It was just fool hardy.

The hag was tending to some sick villagers and would be too busy to bother him with the same nonsense as Miroku and Sango, so that only left Shippo...

Inuyasha sat up straighter when that name crossed his mind. He had not seen the kit for a long while now, he knew for a fact that he was not with his the monk and tajiya. He also knew that Shippo only helped out with the sick when Kagome was around because her much more pleasant scent helped to drown out the gut retching stench of sickness that clung around ill patients like a second skin. So that also crossed Kaede off of his list as well, and when the trouble maker was with neither of his companions that usually left the little fox bugging him until he bopped him a couple a times. Then the kit would whine to Kagome about it when she returned and he would be sat a couple of times with Shippo laughing at the supposed hilarity of it all. He saw nothing funny, being pounded into ground really smarted, and he wouldn't tick her off so often to have such a punishment if he didn't know it would keep her away... to keep her at arms length.

So if Shippo was not bothering him, was not tagging along with the pervert and Sango, and was not helping Kaede nor with Kagome since she was no longer in this realm; then were was he?

Hopping to the forest floor with a snort, Inuyasha tucked his hand into his large red hoari sleeves. If he didn't look for kit and find him before something serious happened to him Kagome would have his head for sure. He gulped, the girl really could be scary when she wanted too. He walked down the path from the Goshinbouku down to the village, ears perked at the top of his head listening for any sounds that would clue him in onto Shippo's location.

When the sound of small whimpering reached his ears, Inuyasha paused a moment to see if he could catch it again and he did. Walking in that direction slowly, deliberately, lest whatever had Shippo truly does hurt him.... Inuyasha was shocked beyond all words by what he saw. He had always known that Shippo was nothing more then a young pup, but never acknowledged him so because of the way he held himself, his attitude towards the situations they faced showed more maturity then most his own age. He had forgotten that the kit was only six, that he should not have lain witness to as many occurrences they come across in their travels, that he should not be as strong as he was and yet here he is in their group managing not to fall behind despite his age.

So when he stumbled into the clearing, the stench of his tears heavy in the area and the sight of the kit holding his knees and conversing with a cracked voice to a small bird that seem to have his complete attention; one could understand his reaction. Unlike his normal entrances, Inuyasha did not make a sound, he wanted to hear what the kit had to say, what had him so terribly sad that even he felt his heart squeeze painfully for the kit.

Tears made their tracks down his cheeks unhindered, he did not try to stop them. This was probably going to be one of the only time he would have to get all of this off of his young chest. One so small could only hold in so much for so long. He sniffled a bit and whipped his nose as he looked at the bird thoughtfully, and then said to it. "You will keep my secret, won't you? You won't tell Inuyasha so that he would make fun of me will you?" He inquired tearfully.

The bird gave no response other then to shake his head slightly and continue watching intently.

Shippo then continued on.

"I'm afraid." He admitted rather reluctantly. For a youkai to admit such a thing so freely was unheard of, and most cowardly. The kit bet Inuyasha was never afraid, he was strong and there wasn't a thing in the whole world that could stand against the hanyou. The kit wished that he could be a bit more like him, and then maybe he wouldn't have to worry about theses stupid fears. "I'm so afraid cause Kagome's gonna leave me forever." He confided to the bird, managing not to wail out like he wished. "After she completes the jewel she's gonna leave me forever and not come back... and then Miroku and Sango won't want me either cause they'll be too buys with their own family and... and... Inuyasha never wanted me around in the first place so I'll be alone again." He told the bird.

"I don't want to be alone, I don't want to be separated from my new family!" He cried to the bird, fresh tears spilling from his eyes now as he tried to force them down, yet he still could not stop them. "I don't want my new mother to go away, I don't want to loose another mother and I don't want Inuyasha to leave either!" He gave the bird a measuring look through his tears, and then as if deciding he could trust it he said. "Inuyasha's my new daddy even if I never told him, he would just laugh if I did, but still I've pretended all these years and now... now ... now I'm gonna loose them forever."

"The jewel is almost complete." He whispered woefully. "When it's done, I'm going to be alone aga-" He was cut off to feel the unfamiliar warmth of a foreign chest. He instantly went still, only relaxing when a growl almost similar to one his own father made when he was upset resonated throughout his body, starting from where he rested against he chest. He saw red sleeves, but would not dare hope that it was who he thought it to be comforting him.

It was impossible, wasn't it?

"Stop crying alright." The unmistakable voice demanded, and Shippo became petrified with shock and fear. "No ones leaving you alone." He told him, and the kit closed his eyes tightly waiting for the laughter to come bubbling up from Inuyasha's chest. When after a long moment nothing came, and the hanyou did nothing more the pull him closer he relaxed. This was so unlike the hanyou, what if it really wasn't him? What if he had been possessed and was going to kill him afterwards. "Kagome's not going anywhere, she wouldn't leave you." Inuyasha assured, patting the kit's head in what he hopped was an reassuring manner. He never knew that the kit felt this way, never had any ideas after all of these years of being together. He had only thought the kid got some sort of sadistic pleasure out of pestering him all the time, but maybe, just maybe that wasn't it. Maybe he wanted attention from a man he wished would take over the roll of his father.

Shippo felt anger course through his blood at those words, and it confused him. He shook with fear and sobs as he said to the hanyou. "No, she's going to go away... I heard her talking with Miroku and Sango when she thought I was asleep. They had asked her if she would stay here after the jewel was complete and she said that she had to return to her own time...to fix things on the other side of the well." He twisted around slightly so that his left side was resting upon the hanyou's chest, his hands fisting in the inu's red robes. "She's going to leave me, and you're leaving to cause you hate me and after Kagome goes away you won't want me to stay around anymore!"

His own fears raced through his mind, causing his heart to pump the blood through his veins faster. Shippo's fears, were his own fears only this time it would seem that kit had proof that she wasn't coming back. Inuyasha cringed, finding it rather hard to breath at the prospect of the miko never returning. Instead of lashing out at the cause of these thoughts, he tried to calm him down. "Whatever gave you that idea, keh, I'm not leaving you runt." He assured. "If I had wanted you gone I'd of gotten rid of you years ago."

"Nu-uh, Kagome would have sat you a hundred times and then some."

"Kagome's not here all of the time, I could have said you got lost." He pointed out.

"You wouldn't want to make Kagome cry." He countered.

Though he had to admit the kit had a point, he was happy that the child wasn't crying as hard as before and was only down to sniffles. He hated it when women and children cried. He held the kit tighter to himself, still holding to the soothing growl. "I'll tell you a secret, but you can't tell anyone else! Got it!"

Looking up at the hanyou wide eyed, the kit could only nod his acceptance zipping his mouth shut in a custom Kagome had shown him from her time.

Inuyasha, consenting to the custom, looked around quickly taking an experimental whiff of the air for any snoopers. Finding nothing, he began to confide his most guarded secret to the boy as his inu ears stood at attention for the slightest sound that was not made by either of them. "I'm afraid too."

If at all possible the kit's eyes got wider from his admittance, pushing his small hand but the firm chest he lay against Shippo lifted himself so that he could look Inuyasha in the eyes. "Your afraid." The words fell from his lips before he could even stop them, but what was done was done. He just hopped it didn't earn him a bop on the head. "What could you possible be afraid of?"

Looking a bit hesitant, he said. "The same thing your afraid of, I don't want Kagome to leave either." He moved the kit down back in his original position so that he could see his eyes as he said this. He did not want the extent of his fear known, nor the extant as to which he cared for her and the kit. "But in the off chance that she does leave, I won't make you leave, you could stay with me or at the village with Sango and Miroku… wherever it is you want to stay." He conceded. When he had heard Shippo say that he wanted him for a father, that he had been pretending it for the last couple of years, he felt a strange felling stir within his chest. It had not been a bad feeling either, and oddly enough it compelled him to comfort the kitsune. One question ran through his head, but he would not ask it unsure if he truly wanted the answer. '_Why would a full demon even want to consider a half bread his father?'_

"Really!"

"Yeah." He replied softly.

Shippo buried himself in the bulked of Inuyasha's hoari, not hiding this time the comfort he took from the action. The hanyou didn't really hate him then if he was going to let him stay even if Kagome didn't. He had thought as soon as she was gone so would have Inuyasha kicked him out of the village, out of their little family they had created. "Inuyasha I don't want Kagome to go, she's my new mother now, I don't want to lose her." He felt it safe to make this confession since the hanyou had confessed his own fear of Kagome leaving through the well and never coming back.

"Maybe we could do something that would convince her to stay?" Inuyasha suggested, hopping it would give the kit incentive to not give up. The way he had been acting her in the clearing, as if she was already gone when she wasn't.

"Really, like what?" He sniffled.

"I don't know, but we should return to the village." He said. "Kagome's gonna return soon." He stood with the kit tucked safely in his arms making his way towards the path that lead directly to the village. "Hurry and dry your tears before we get there." Shippo nodded against him, already setting to it by whipping the tears with his green kimono sleeve.

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Kneeling next to her overly stuffed yellow back pack was Kagome, tears streaming down her checks, the wind blowing against her cooling her wet face. She had heard it all. When she had first seen Shippo, she wanted to go to him, to comfort him; but Inuyasha had beat her too it. Much too her own surprise he was actually good at it. He hadn't yelled once, had not bopped him on the head at all, he didn't even make fun of him for his tears.

Then she heard their conversation.

That is why she was in tears. They weren't tears of sadness, but ones of relief, ones of happiness. She had thought they would not care if she left. She knew that Miroku, Sango, Kirara and Shippo would be sad; but not like this. She had not known that the kit felt this way towards her. She had not known that Inuyasha feared she wouldn't ever come back. Always she had perceived from the way the hanyou treated her that he though of her as nothing more then a shard detector and perhaps -at lest she dearly hoped so- that over the years as a slight friend.

She spent an hour there, in that very spot downwind of where Inuyasha and Shippo had been, trying to regain her composure. If she showed up at the village smelling of tears both the kit and the hanyou would be asking her questions, trying to see if she were alright. She didn't want that, and so when they subsided she took a water bottle from her back and washed her face of tears and returned it to her pack. Strapping the monstrosity to her back, Kagome made her way back to the village.

She and Shippo needed to have a long talk sometime while she was in this era for the moment.

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A/N: I hope you all like it. I know that it is a bit OOC, but if you saw Inuyasha last Saturday -and for those of you not in the united states, the Ep. with Inuyasha thinking he was an apprentice to Toutou-sai when actually all he really wanted it a bath. Inuyasha meet a little lynx demon and takes care of him when he gets sick, even giving him his food and helping him save his father when he found out why exactly he was doing all of this for.- Sides it's been a couple years, he could have gotten nicer.

Anyways so you all know my 14 chapter for **_Simple Lies _**should be completed by the end of this week or the beginning of the next. The same goes for the 3 Chapter of **_Hidden Beneath a Smile. _**Any of you who have not read them yet and are interested I suggest you read the second one first, I feel that I did a better job on it, but whatever. It could just be a artist quirk that I feel that way.

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Hope that you all have a wonderful day, and don't forget to review!!!!


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